And why? It is no shame;
Unless that he would greater be
Than was his father Henery,
Who, men thought, did the same.
JOHN HAMMON.
John Hammon, M.A., to whom the following “Exhortation” is addressed, was instituted to the rectory of Bibbesford and chapel of Bewdley in Worcestershire the 2d of March 1614, on the presentation of sir William Cook. The new zeal with which he was inspired arose most probably from the intrusion of the “Book of Sports,” by James, in 1618[71], in which the king’s pleasure is declared, “that, after the end of divine service, our good people be not disturbed, letted or discouraged from any lawfull recreation; such as dauncing, either men or women; archerie for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmlesse recreation; nor from having of May games, Witson ales, and Morris dances, and the setting up of Maypoles and other sports therein used; and that women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church for the decoring of it, according to their old custome.”
AN EXHORTATION
TO
MR. JOHN HAMMON,
MINISTER IN THE PARISH OF BEWDLY,
For the battering downe of the Vanityes of the Gentiles, which are comprehended in a Maypole.